The Supremes have published their decision in the court case between the Diocese of Virginia and the parishes that chose to leave TEC.  You can find the ruling here.  Not sure at all what it means, though, I’m sure the Anglican Curmudgeon will offer some analysis shortly.

Virginia Anglican Congregations Disappointed.

May 19, 2010
Dear Christ Church family,

I am writing to inform you that I will be retiring as your rector September 1, 2010. With the encouragement and support of our wardens and vestry, I will not be returning after my sabbatical and vacation this Summer. May 30 will be my last Sunday at Christ Church.

Nine years ago Clancy Wolliver called for the vestry and search committee to invite me to be your rector. It was a dream come true, and Ellen, our children and I all felt it was God’s calling. Ministering among you at Christ Church has been the most spiritually demanding and fulfilling years of my 29 years as an Episcopal priest. Thank you for your amazing and generous support when my family and I needed you, for your patience when I failed you, and for your steadfast commitment to God and his Word. It has been an honor to serve one of the really great congregations in The Episcopal Church. For my failures and successes, I have loved you, the people of Christ Church.

I’m sure it will not surprise anyone that my decision to take early retirement is because of a crisis of conscience. Even though I was born and raised in The Episcopal Church, it has moved further and further away from the Gospel to which I committed my life and I have concluded that there is no future for me in this spiritual environment.

As for the future of Christ Church, you continue to be served exceptionally well by the best clergy and staff I have ever worked with. They are absolutely extraordinary, loyal and hardworking. When I retire, the Senior Warden and vestry will become the ecclesiastical authority in accordance with our Bylaws and with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, and I’m sure the bishop and vestry will in good time initiate a search for a new Rector. I pray that God will send someone who loves you, who will have the respect of a great staff, and who will preach the power of God’s Word.

As for me and Ellen, please pray for us. I look forward to my sabbatical leave this summer. As you know, it was planned more than a year before my decision to retire. It may sound strange, but I will be focusing on reading and writing poetry, something that is deeply fulfilling to me at this point in my life. I trust it will be a chance to also pray and assess my future in God’s service. I love the Anglican heritage and I plan to devote my last years to serving God as an Anglican priest. I take with me deep and treasured memories of the times I have been with you in hospital rooms and homes, for baptisms, prayer services for sick friends and funerals, Bible studies through Daniel and Romans with passing references to Obadiah, and the privileged times I had your attention when I was in the pulpit.

This is the most difficult decision I have faced in ministry. Ellen and I have prayed hard and long about this and believe it is God’s will. I am especially grateful for a few friends who walked closely with me, who bought me untold numbers of beers (over a long period of time!), who fought for the concerns of my family and my retirement, and who never gave up on me. I am thankful for many others of you who prayed for me and for Christ Church regularly.

Please continue praying for me as I pray for you. I truly believe that “We have scarcely begun to see all of God that the Scriptures give us to see, and what we have not yet seen is exceedingly glorious” (John Piper).

Faithfully,

Chuck Collins
Rector

A statement from Anglican Mainstream following the consecration of Mary Glasspool:

In her letter to the Primates, the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (TEC) Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, confirmed that the consecration of the openly gay Mary Glasspool is not a random event but comes from the settled mind of her church. Sadly, this shows that TEC has now explicitly decided to walk apart from most of the rest of the Communion.

Since that decision by TEC has to be respected, it should result in three consequences. First, TEC withdrawing, or being excluded from the Anglican Communion’s representative bodies. Second, a way must be found to enable those orthodox Anglicans who remain within TEC to continue in fellowship with the Churches of the worldwide Communion. Third, the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) should now be recognized an authentic Anglican Church within the Communion.

Dr Philip Giddings, Convenor,

Canon Dr Chris Sugden Executive Secretary, Anglican Mainstream

From the Anglican Curmudgeon:

Under that same Presiding Bishop (Jefferts Schori), the Episcopal Church (USA) claimed to “depose” Bishop Robert W. Duncan, then of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and now Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America. The “deposition” was recognized only by the same handful of provinces which are beholden to ECUSA for financial and other support. Unlike Bishop V. Gene Robinson, he has since been welcomed at Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury, he has been invited (with ++Cantuar’s blessing) by the Bishop of Winchester to preach and celebrate in his Diocese, and last week he led the celebration of the Eucharist at the gathering of the Global South provinces in Singapore.

It would seem that to be “deposed” by ECUSA’s House of Bishops is the ideal way to earn your standing among the other bishops of the Anglican Communion. To be consecrated by ECUSA’s bishops, however, seems to be a certain way to cause other Anglican bishops to look further into your qualifications.

Read the rest.

All Saints Episcopal Church files motion with SCOTUS to withdraw the petition for Cert.   This is very good news for the Diocese of South Carolina and every parish in the Diocese – as well as beyond.

Praise God for this decision.

I awoke to read this nice email from Bonnie Anderson addressed to the deputies and first alternates from SC to the General Convention:  

March 19, 2010

 Dear Deputies and First Alternates,

 My thoughts and prayers are with you and the Diocese of South Carolina as you approach the gathering of the people of God at the 219th annual diocesan convention.

 I would like to offer my sincere thanks to you for your generosity of spirit in your preparation for General Convention and for your faithful participation in all that the House of Deputies accomplished at General Convention in Anaheim.

 For the 76th time in the history of The Episcopal Church, in Anaheim we experienced how the Holy Spirit works through our governance structure, fashioned by our founders, that requires the equal participation of laity, clergy and bishops. Centered in our community worship, we navigated difficult decisions with care and prayer.

 Now we begin again, laity, bishops, clergy, all taking our places in the councils of the Church as called for in our Catechism. Your diocesan convention offers the opportunities for relationship building, mission development and leadership. All are enabled by God in a unique gathering of all the baptized. As deputies, elected by and trusted by your diocese, you have been called into leadership.

 Leadership in “tough times” is challenging. We are called to do more ministry with fewer material resources. But our spiritual resources have not been diminished. Our spiritual resources are strengthened and increased as we come together in Christian community in the name of Jesus Christ.

 I pray that the convention of the Diocese of South Carolina is spirit-filled, generous and joyful and that you are happy and at peace.

 In thanksgiving for your ministry,

Bonnie Anderson, D.D.,
President, The House of Deputies

Earlier today Archbishop Jensen (Sydney) issued a statement regarding the gathering of consents necessary for Mary Glasspool, a non-celibate lesbian, to be consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles.  In it he praises the patience and gentility of those within and without the American church who have sought to be a “middle group” or a third way.  I have argued that the supposed third way – in but not in/out but not out – is a mythological and vain hope that fails the first test of logic.  In a different context: one is either in a marriage or one is not in a marriage.  If a couple, due to marital infidelity, decides to separate, either by moving down the hall to a different room within the house, or by departing the house, they are STILL married.  To remain within TEC, in spite of its biblical/theological infidelities, is to remain within TEC regardless of the linguistic gymnastics employed to persuade/delude oneself otherwise.  Mary Glasspool as a bishop of the church is a bishop for the church, including South Carolina.  It is a logical and ontological impossibility to be in but not in.

Now, Archbishop Jensen presses the “middle groupers” with these words:

With the election of the Reverend Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, as a Bishop in Los Angeles in The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion reaches another decisive moment. It is now absolutely clear to all that the national Church itself has formally committed itself to a pattern of life which is contrary to Scripture. The election of Bishop Robinson in 2003 was not an aberration to be corrected in due course. It was a true indication of the heart of the Church and the direction of its affairs . . . . This is a decisive moment for this ‘middle’ group. Their patience has been gentle and praiseworthy. But to wait longer would not be patience – it would be obstinacy or even an unworthy anxiety (emphasis mine).

Read it all.

Now, my wondering eyes turn to the Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina and I wonder with the psalmist, “how long, O Lord?”  How long, and by what rationale, can we remain covenanted with an institution that has severed itself from its head (Colossians 2.18-20) and embraced another lover?

Chemical Kate, minister of disinformation and practitioner of ecclesiastical genocide, continues her wanton ways.

The Anglican Curmudgeon notes today the sale of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghampton, NY to a Muslim group – turning the church into a mosque?  Here’s the Curmudgeon’s report:

In court the Diocese’s complaint alleged that the parish was no longer using the property for the purposes for which its Episcopal ancestors had acquired and built it, and had spent money to maintain it over the years. But as we see, this was the hypocrisy of the dog in the manger. The Diocese could not put the property to any such use; it lacked sufficient parishioners to support the property. So under the twisted and hypocritical logic of the Dennis Canon, the Diocese is seen as upholding the purposes of the original donors better by letting the property become — what, a mosque? — rather than allowing it to be used by those who were more faithful to that tradition than was Bishop Adams. (The hypocrisy in central and western New York does not seem to be confined just to Episcopalians.)

This is one of the principal reasons I cannot subscribe to the leftwing lurches of the Episcopal Church (USA). Those on the left are incapable of perceiving the hypocrisy between what they profess and what they do. They move in with their agenda, and inevitably make things much worse for the Church than they were before. And as the Church slowly fails in its great mission, dragged down by the enormous expense of unmitigated lawsuits, and led by people who would rather see Muslims than Anglicans make use of their property, they refuse to accept any responsibility whatsoever for the decline.

Read it all.

In this morning’s Post & Courier Peter Moore wrote a rebuttal to the misleading full-page ad placed by the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina.  Well done, Peter, and thanks.

The full-page ad in the March 2 Post and Courier by The Episcopal Forum of S.C. begs for a response.

Some may respond by becoming members, others by raised eyebrows. My response is bemused and unpersuaded.

As a life-long Episcopalian, former dean of one of the Episcopal Church’s 11 seminaries, ordained priest for 49 years and author of several books including “A Church To Believe In,” I am less enthusiastic about the current state of the Episcopal Church (TEC) than members of the forum appear to be.

And I say this as someone who has visited nearly every diocese in this church, including Alaska and Hawaii, and preached or spoken in most. Also, I am a convinced Anglican with a deep loyalty to our Anglican heritage.

In its description of “I am an Episcopalian” the forum touches on many issues with which I have great sympathy: the dignity of every person, our ancient liturgy, women’s ordination, lay involvement and the world-wide body of 70 million members of which we are a part.

What it does not say as clearly as it ought is that this worldwide body, the Anglican Communion, is profoundly upset with the current activities of the Episcopal Church, to the point that a majority of its Primates (chief bishops in each international province) consider themselves in broken communion with it, and increasingly are officially recognizing the newly-formed Anglican Church of North America as a more authentic representative of true Anglicanism in this continent.

Why?

– Leading bishops and theologians of the Episcopal Church, including the presiding bishop, will not affirm Jesus Christ as the unique Son of God and the only way to salvation.

– While the Bible is mined for interesting theological ideas, TEC is unwilling to submit to the clear teaching of Scripture on many issues, including those of marriage and sexuality.

– TEC has consistently sided in its affirmations with the pro-abortion forces within government and society.

– Far from honoring differences, as the forum says, TEC is involved in more than 60 lawsuits against its own churches and dioceses whom it considers unEpiscopalian because they cannot follow present leadership of TEC because of its lack of adherence to traditional Christian beliefs.

– TEC’s presiding bishop has consistently assumed powers that are uncanonical, and thereby unlawful under TEC’s own laws and constitution, and freely removes bishops and clergy who openly differ with her.

– In flagrant refusal to submit to worldwide Christian opinion, it has ordained a noncelibate homosexual as a bishop and is poised to ordain others as bishops who similarly live in relationships that disregard the biblical norm for sexuality.

– TEC’s House of Bishops will not discipline fellow members who widely disseminate outrageously unChristian views with impunity.

I believe that the vast majority of Episcopalians in the Diocese of South Carolina question the forum’s understanding of the Faith and Order to which we all have pledged allegiance.

Rather, we stand firmly and lovingly with our bishop and those clergy and laity who carry on effective ministries in Christ’s name throughout this Diocese.

THE VERY REV. PETER C. MOORE, D.D.
Ponsbury Road
Mount Pleasant

This brilliant piece was posted by A. S. Haley on the Anglican Curmudgeon tonight.  Here’s one of my favorite clips, but read it all – it offers backstory to the climate in the Diocese of SC.

One would think that these propositions are self-evident, but not with this Presiding Bishop, who in the language of the Wild West from whence she hails, was described by Bishop Lee of Virginia, according to testimony in the Virginia litigation, as “the new sheriff in town.” Just the fact that a Presiding Bishop could mange to have her role as Chief Pastor of the Church viewed as closer to that of a “sheriff” says all that need be said about what is wrong with the current leadership of the Episcopal Church (USA).

Here’s the rest of Haley’s article, South Carolina: A Case Study in How to Tear a Church apart.